


Together I think that we can make it

by kjstark



Series: Three Himbo Ghosts in Love [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Electric shocks, Electricity, Electrocution, Light Angst, M/M, Pain, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:23:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27135194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kjstark/pseuds/kjstark
Summary: If they’re going home tonight, they’re going big.And more importantly, they’re gonna go together.Except nothing happens once the music fades and they drift back and out of the Orpheum to a cold, dark alley in Sunset Boulevard.
Relationships: Alex/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: Three Himbo Ghosts in Love [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980635
Comments: 8
Kudos: 307





	Together I think that we can make it

**Author's Note:**

> The requested continuation to ["In Your Starlight"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26552821) (though it can work as a standalone fic), this time with a not-so-platonic threeway-kiss. 
> 
> **WARNINGS FOR** : constant depictions of electric shocks as experienced in canon and mild or implied desires of dying. Also, a brief mention of past-suffering from sulfuric acid poisoning.

Alex hears Caleb’s distant voice, thanking the crowd, and his eyes are glued to the back of Luke’s head. When he turns, the guitarist is swallowing visibly. 

Alex turns to Reggie then, his mouth curving into a mute ‘Julie’ like a cry for help and a reminder, but Reggie nods along because their minds are all connected at that moment in time. 

Like their very souls. 

So Luke nods with his head to Alex, and Alex can’t register at first what he means, but a second later, he does.

It’s Luke leading them away; it’s Luke providing answers, exits, and way-outs. 

It’s Luke taking a dangerous risk in a gesture of love. 

Alex locks his eyes with him, with a brave grin, and nods. 

He hears a fading guitar solo that does the trick to distract Caleb before Alex poofs out and onto the stage with Julie, a wide smile on his face as he looks at her. 

It takes Reggie no time to follow and soon enough Julie’s jumping up and down at their side, her excitement and warmth radiating out of her as usual. 

Alex plays his drums to the beat as Luke starts to flicker before them, like it’s taking him a bigger toll to be here. 

Alex doesn’t notice he’s holding his breath until Luke’s voice soars loud on the mic, a huge smile drawn on his face. 

If they’re going home tonight, they’re going big. 

And more importantly, they’re gonna go together.

Except nothing happens once the music fades and they drift back and out of the Orpheum to a cold, dark alley in Sunset Boulevard. 

Well, nothing happens until one of those bolt things washes over their bodies without warning, shocking them to the ground. 

Alex feels his back hit the pavement hard as his body spasms through the writhing pain, his eyes shut closed. 

He can hear Reggie’s grunting to his lower left and Luke’s heavy breathing to his upper right; they’re all scattered through the place. 

“We— c-can’t let Julie s—” Luke’s words struggle to come out and Alex can feel a hand reaching for his leg. 

He lets out a breath, his head feeling dizzy and his muscles feeling numb. “Where will we go?” 

Another wave of electricity overtakes them and Reggie jumps closer to Alex’s lower-half, clinging to him for dear non-life. 

Alex feels himself coughing, feels himself grunting like all his insides are burned to crisps with every jolt, one more powerful than the other. 

He wonders — in the back of his head— how many deaths can one feel before enough is enough. 

He doesn’t think he’s done something so bad to make him deserving of this, but more so he knows Luke and Reggie deserve it even less. 

He starts crying before he can even open his eyes, and his hand trembles all the way down his body until it finds Reggie’s unsteady shoulder and he squeezes. 

“The garage,” Luke says, once he’s taking a calming breath but the shakiness in his voice is ever-present. 

Reggie has his eyes closed and his lower lip trapped under his teeth, biting. 

Alex tries to move first but Reggie’s lying almost-half on top of him, and his bones ache like never before. 

Luke musters all his strength and gets up first, then he puts his hands beneath Alex’s arms and helps him up enough until they just have Reggie to deal with. 

Reggie’s nearly dead-limbed on the hard, dirty floor and he still hasn’t opened his eyes. Alex feels sick if he looks down for too long.

“Reg, c’mon,” Luke breathes and goes for Reggie’s left arm. Alex takes the right and they prop him up with great effort. 

Not because Reggie weights a lot at all, but because the pain barely allows them to hold their own bodies.

And as they poof into the garage, Alex muses about how he didn’t wanna die before, but he definitely felt like he wanted to, now. 

They put Reggie against the couch and fall with a thud on the floor, exhausted. 

“What happened?” Reggie asks, dazed, the light slowly coming back to his eyes. 

Luke and Alex shake their heads at the same time. 

“Why didn’t we leave?” Reggie tries again, his voice almost breaking. 

Alex can feel that same desperation in his heart, too. 

“Maybe it wasn’t playing the Orpheum,” Luke says, sitting against the chair. 

Alex swallows, feeling his body again, and throws his arms back, resting against them. “Maybe it’s Caleb messing us up,” he said.

Reggie sighs. “But I thought Willie said—”

“Maybe Willie doesn’t know. Maybe Willie’s just...wishful thinking,” Alex cuts him off, looking down. 

Willie had wanted him to stay here forever. 

And under different circumstances, Alex had wanted to, too. 

Another shock tears through them like thunder. It feels like fire and shattered glass and every heartache Alex’s ever felt in his previous life. 

He grits his teeth and drives his hands to his stomach to press and make sure he’s not being cut in half or something. 

It doesn’t help that Luke screams with this one, and Reggie falls from the couch to reach for both of them while in agony. 

God, Alex thinks it’s overdue. Hell or heaven, just bring it. 

This isn’t fair. 

They were just kids; they had been just kids. Just playing music and dreaming of taking over the world. Never hurt a fly, never took a bad path. 

They had loved each other. 

Alex’s eyelids are heavy as he opens them slowly, traveling the room surrounding him. A room he knows like the back of his hand, a room he’d know in the dark, blind. 

He smiles despite the pain and how dry his mouth feels even though he’s been salivating since they left the Orpheum. 

He can remember the first time he walked into the garage, holding the heavy box of the drums set and dragging it to the spot they had saved for it. 

He can remember himself falling in love with music, with  _ their  _ music, all over again. He can remember entire summers spent here, writing, playing scrabble, eating bad pizza. 

Alex thinks bitterly he would give anything to have it back. Maybe that’s what they should’ve asked Caleb for. 

“Alex, are you dead?” Reggie asks, his voice deep with worry. 

“Technically, yes,” Alex replies, suddenly in good humor but he’s still groaning. 

Luke shifts around and sits upright again. “They keep getting worse,” he says, and wipes the tears off his face. 

“You do know Julie’s gonna come here, right?” Alex asks and he puts his back to the amp. 

Luke and Reggie turn to him with concern in their eyes. 

“Nah, she’s probably gonna eat something with her family to celebrate,” Luke considers.

“Yeah, she’ll go straight to bed after,” Reggie chimes in.

And Alex doesn’t know if it’s a side-effect of being electrocuted several times over but he actually laughs at that. It’s more of a breathy chuckle than a laugh, but it makes him feel good despite everything else.

“You guys are so dumb,” he mutters, amused, rubbing his temple. “I mean, in a cute, endearing kind-of-way but still dumb,” Alex adds. 

Maybe this is what being drunk feels like.

It’s like his brain is all mushed up in one babbling, filter-less mess.

Alex wondered if that’s how being Reggie felt like. 

“Wait, are you— complimenting us?” Luke asks with a frown. 

Reggie snickers. “Only Alex would hide a compliment behind an insult,” he adds, smiling goofily. 

Alex shrugs from his spot. 

“Yeah, but, it’s fine, right? We love him nonetheless,” Luke reflects and maybe Alex’s ears have stopped working but it sounds different this time.

“That we do,” Reggie agrees, pointing with a finger, like a laser gun. 

It’s so ridiculous and so Reggie, Alex feels himself get warm. 

But his eyebrows arch and he looks at them. They’re smiling at him like he hangs up the moon every day. 

“Oh, is this you two being weird again?” 

Alex remembers bullshit excuses and an awkwardly-positioned three-people kiss so well he can almost feel it on his lips like the piercing waves of electricity Caleb seems to love so much.

He can see a smile drawn slowly on Luke’s mouth when another shock comes and renders them unable to do anything else but choke on cries. 

Reggie’s the first to gather himself again, dragging himself through the carpet, closer to Alex. “Ugh, might as well get it off, since we’re clearly not making it out of this one either…”

“Reg…” Luke says, panting a little. 

“Hey, I’m not wasting my chance a second time over. I left first before, remember?” Reggie said, in an easy tone. 

But Luke shot a glance at Alex and he swallowed. The sight of Reggie coughing blood all over the ambulance floor had been even worse than the burn inside Alex’s throat. 

Watching the light flicker off from his eyes should’ve put things in perspective, but Alex had been busy with his own pain to reflect on anything. 

And Luke had passed out a beat later, going into respiratory arrest.

He still thought somehow this was worse, maybe ‘cause it had been haunting them for days now. 

Reggie sits on his legs, and stares at Alex, an open smile on his face. The dark-haired goon lets out a heavy breath in front of him, like he’s gathering up some fleeting courage. 

“Anytime now, Reg,” Luke mocks him in the back and Alex is, funny enough, the confused one for a change. 

“Alright, you wanna come with me, maybe?” Reggie offers, turning to Luke just barely. 

Then Reggie drags his bent-knees closer to Alex until he’s just sitting next to him. “Hi,” Reggie greets, his smile growing wider, sillier.

Alex smiles faintly, his eyebrows arching in a question. “What is happening?” 

Reggie points with his thumb to Luke, slowly but surely making his way towards them, on the other side. “Oh, we’re waiting for Luke to get a little closer,” he answers like that’s what Alex even asked. 

“I can see that— what  _ for _ ?” 

Luke makes it to his other side with a sigh. “It’s, uhm— ” Luke takes another breath, like making it there was physically challenging. 

Alex can’t really feel his toes so he can imagine it was. 

“It’s a death-bed confession, I think— except,” Luke looks around them, frowning, “well, we’re not in a bed,” he says, pouting. 

“And this is our second time dying,” Reggie points. “Kinda makes you think we should be better at this,” he adds, on a different note. 

Alex watches them with his mouth slightly open, dumbfounded. 

It’s almost as if they speak another language, or maybe Alex can’t imagine this being even real. 

No, that’s it. He’s dead. This is heaven. His own personal kind, it seems.

“Huh,” Alex lets out in awe. And he smiles big at fantasy-Luke and fantasy-Reggie. “Nice,” Alex says to himself. 

But fantasy-Luke and fantasy-Reggie frown in response, like this wasn’t what they expected from Alex.

And he comes to think, if this  _ was  _ heaven, then fantasy-Willie should be here, too.

Weird. 

“Is that all? Just—  _ ‘nice’ _ ?” Luke asks, almost like he’s offended. 

Alex shrugs. “Yeah, I mean, it’s pretty great. I thought Willie would be here, too, though. Also, that guy from our last school year, the exchange student— Antoine! God, he was hot,” Alex babbles. 

Reggie nods slowly, his mouth hanging. Then he leans to Luke’s space. “Yeah, I don’t think he’s following what we mean,” he whispers to Luke but they’re close enough that Alex can hear.

“Sure I do. You’re about to say you like me, and it’s awesome, very ‘every Alex’s dreams come true’. Good job,” Alex says, looking at the ceiling as if to thank God himself. 

“Who are you talking to?” Reggie mutters, looking up, too.

Luke puts a hand on Reggie’s shoulder, stopping for a beat and looking at Alex. “Wait, wait, ‘every dream come true’? You’re saying— Alex, you like us, too?” Luke asks with a glint in his eyes. 

Alex puffs. “Please, since, like, I was fifteen. Luke was obvious,” he says, pointing at Luke like he’s not even there. But then he eyes fantasy-Reggie, sitting, still confused but watching Alex attentively. “But Reggie did catch me by surprise, I won’t lie,” he said, pointing at Reggie now, squinting his eyes a little. “And I know it’s not conventional, a little out-of-the-ordinary, but— I don’t know, I guess I just can’t imagine myself ever being with one without the other. It’s always been the three of us, you know?” Alex muses. 

But Luke looks like he did in every math class and Reggie’s just smiling dearly at him. 

Alex narrows his eyes. “You know, it’s kind of crazy that real Luke and Reggie never even noticed, ‘cause I thought I was pretty hopeless about it,” he adds. 

Reggie moves his head back. “Well, I was kinda confused abou—”

“Wait, no, ‘real Luke and Reggie'?” Luke interrupts him with a hand, his eyes glued to Alex. “Alex, what are you talking about? We  _ are  _ real.” 

“Well, as real as two ghosts can be,” Reggie mutters. 

“Which is a lot, it seems,” Luke shoots back. 

Alex's smile erases slowly from his face as they both look at him waiting, expectant, but their darling looks are untouched. 

It all sinks on Alex. 

“Wait, wait, hold on, hold on, w-w- _ what _ ?” Alex shoots, shifting on his spot to sit straight and slightly away from them. Until his back hits the amp again and Alex realizes they have cornered him. 

“Ah, there he is, the anxiety-ridden mess we love,” Reggie says sweetly, looking over at Luke, who chuckles in reply. 

“Are you— are you two saying what I think you’re saying?” Alex repeats. 

Reggie puts a finger on his chin. “Oh, I believe you called it your ‘every dreams come true’,” he repeats, making fun of him. 

Alex closes his eyes embarrassed. “Oh, God, please just kill me,” he begs, for like the fifth time tonight. 

“I’m pretty sure he already did,” Luke says in a whisper, moving closer to him. 

Alex opens his eyes reluctantly and glares at Luke at little. 

But all Luke is doing is giving him the biggest puppy eyes he’s ever seen on his friend and Alex feels some trembling in his gut but this time it’s not from the jolts or a poisoned hotdog. 

Then he turns to Reggie to find he has a matching spark in his eyes and his smile is doing that ‘s’ thing it does. 

Really, Alex is a goner. 

And death just won’t claim him again so he has no choice but to sit there, his eyes on the carpet, avoiding theirs. 

Until Luke puts his hand on top of Alex's and moves to grab Reggie’s with his other one, all the way and above Alex’s legs, a bright smile on his face. 

“I mean it, Alex,” he tries, nodding, honest. “And so does Reggie—” Luke tilts his head towards Reggie, as if to cue him in. 

Alex turns to him and Reggie moves one shoulder up. “Luke and I talked about it— maybe you were right. Friends don’t kiss like that. We may have strengthened the friendship a little  _ too  _ much,” he jokes. 

It makes Alex and Luke laugh in a breath, and suddenly Alex thinks it’s not that hard. 

It’s them. 

It’s always been them. 

So he nods, slowly blinking, and presses his lips together in a line. A leap of trust and courage. The silent yet powerful knowledge that he would trust them even in death. 

That he would love them in twenty lifetimes over. 

So he twists his hand around to grab Luke’s inside his and he reaches for Reggie’s other one by the side of his hip, on the floor. He gives them a light squeeze before he lets them go completely.

And instead, he grabs their chins and pulls them closer to his face, his eyes switching between a set of amber and then blue ones, before all three of them shut them close and press their lips together, one corner to each mouth. 

It’s not perfect by any measure, but it fills up their non-beating hearts and Luke and Reggie get so invested in it they actually push Alex back to the amp until they’re all giggling. 

“See? I told you, it only takes a little bit of practice,” Reggie says, inches away from their faces. 

And normally, they would have laughed, but another jolt consumes them in the dead dark of the room of the garage; the only light creeping into the place was the bright moonlight coming from the skylight over the small garden they had. 

He bites his tongue to keep from screaming and he can feel Reggie violently spasming beside him. He wants to reach over but his arm is a stiff, dead limb next to him. Luke is gripping Alex's shoulder so hard, he would probably bruise. If his body still did that. 

It's bullshit that he can't even enjoy one goddamned kiss before life tries to screw him over. Again.

The Orpheum gig, meeting Willie, and now this. It's like they were specifically out to get him. 

Mostly just freaking Caleb, though. 

Another jolt hits them through but they really had to man up about this one, because in the dead of the room, they heard the garage door open. 

And under no circumstances were they to let Julie know they were there and miserably in pain, no. She was to go on in her life happy and unscathed. 

She deserves as much.

"I...I know I already said this but— thank you, guys," she speaks in that soft voice. 

Alex actually holds his breath and Luke's head stops twitching next to his. 

"You're welcome," Reggie groans. 

Alex sighs with an eye-roll. "Dude…" Luke breathes. 

And as Julie turns on the lights and Alex fears there's a very painful, maybe even tearful, goodbye coming, he knows at least that he'll have these idiots by his side. 

And together, odds are they'll make it. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm at Tumblr as [alexreggieluke](https://buckybear.co.vu/) if you wanna give me prompts for more fics and support me on other platforms or just to scream at me about Julie and the Phantoms.


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